


Uncertain Sincerity

by jamdraws (lemonbutterjam)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/F, aggressive flirting, basically some nonconsensual contact, just a heads up lila is flirting aggressively sort of how she flirted woth adrien, no concept of personal space, so she gets rly close to marinette even tho mari is clearly uncomfortable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 07:56:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17219972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lemonbutterjam/pseuds/jamdraws
Summary: What if things were different in Chameleon? Instead of pursuing Adrien Agreste, fashion model and the "perfect" boy, what if Lila turned her sights on Marinette? After all, Marinette's the only one who ever tried to prove Lila wrong. Marinette's the only one who bothered to look past her facade. Of course Lila would be interested.





	Uncertain Sincerity

**Author's Note:**

> Beta-d by [vivific](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivific/pseuds/vivific/works)
> 
> Written for the first day of lilanette week. who knows if i will ever continue it.  
> [lilanette week blog](http://lilanette-week.tumblr.com/)

As usual, Marinette is late.

However, this time she’s woken up too late for even a proper breakfast, and instead she’s running down the street while wolfing down a croissant at an unhealthy speed. She sprints up the too-many steps of the school as she finishes swallowing the last bit of her food.

“Wait, wait, wait!” she yells, forcing her way through the closing doors and dashing past whatever poor staff had been doing their job. Unfortunately, that’s not the end of it, for there’s yet another unholy set of stairs left for her to zip up before reaching her destination. But Marinette has done this ritual many times, and her calves, though tired, are well-prepared for the climb. She makes her way up and nearly falls through the door of her classroom. 

She isn’t expecting to see Nino occupying her usual spot, and also definitely not expecting to see a fresh empty seat next to Adrien. She immediately smiles and starts to make her way to Alya. How did she do it?

Just then, a certain blonde girl saunters over to Adrien. Ah, the usual.

“Oh, hey Adrikins, do you mind if I sit here today? You know, since the arrangements have changed,” Chloe asks, fluttering her eyelashes. Marinette is impressed for a second, Chloe must have practiced that eyelash fluttering in private. It looks pretty convincing. 

“Um,” Adrien begins, and glances back at Nino for help. Nino winks, whispers a quick goodbye to Alya, and slides right in to his normal seat.

“Sorry Chloe! I was just chatting with Alya, but this is still my seat, even if Marinette got moved,” Nino says, shrugging. Chloe scowls, and Adrien laughs nervously. Marinette looks confused. Moved?

“Nino, what-”

“Oh, hi Marinette!” A familiar voice from behind her greets, and Marinette nearly jumps in surprise. When she glances back, she sees none other than Lila Rossi standing in the door with a bright smile on her face. Marinette grimaces instinctively before she can stop it. 

“Hi Lila!” Literally nearly everyone behind her says in chorus, and Marinette rolls her eyes inwardly. She sees Chloe roll her eyes too, and Marinette nearly laughs at the irony of how Chloe is the only other one who dislikes Lila. Chloe slinks back to her normal seat as everyone’s attention centers on Lila.

“Hey everyone!” Lila says, waving with a sugary sweet smile on her face. “I’m so glad to be back with you all!” 

Marinette bites at her lip, glaring at Lila as the rest of the class replies positively. Wordlessly, she turns back around and moves to take a seat, but someone grabs her hand.

Lila passes her, pulling her along. Marinette stumbles and tugs back.

“H-hey, what are you doing?” She says, barely restraining herself from ripping her hand out of the other girl’s grip.

“Oh, Marinette, I asked the professor if the two of us could sit together in the back! I’ve missed so much school, and seeing as you’re the class representative, I was hoping you’d want to help me catch up!” Lila replies, gesturing to her with a bright smile. “I’ve heard all about how you’re so supportive and a natural leader of the class! Would you do that for me?”

Marinette hears Chloe grunt somewhere in the background and stops herself from snickering. The rest of the class looks at her expectantly. There was no way she could refuse when Lila put it that way, especially not with the teacher looking up at them.

“You see, I’m farsighted so I thought it would be best if I sat in the back! I hope you don’t mind!” Lila continues, and Marinette can feel her gut recoil in disgust and confusion. Why is Lila trying to sit with her, and at the back of the classroom? Is it because Marinette tried to prove her wrong during her video call on Heroes’ Day? There has to be some kind of a catch.

“Oh, it’s fine. I would love to help,” Marinette says carefully, but her words are ever-so-slightly pinched. She looks to her right, giving Alya a pleading look, but her best only smiles at the interaction. Damn it, she’s probably finding this funny since Marinette’s always seemed suspicious of Lila.

“Oh, you’re such a sweetheart!” Lila says, and she squeezes Marinette’s hand on  _ sweetheart _ . As if that weren’t enough, she blows a kiss with her free hand. “Mwah!”

Marinette frowns in confusion, and lets herself get dragged to the back. Lila exchanges pleasantries with the classmates along the way, and everyone responds to her happily.  _ Like fools _ .

Lila slides into the final seat in the back, and pulls Marinette in to sit as well. She takes her bag off and sets it on the desk as Marinette stares, before finally crossing her legs and giving Marinette another one of her ever-present smiles. 

Marinette presses her lips together and doesn’t smile back, and goes about putting her own belongings away. She prays Lila doesn’t want anything more than just guidance in getting back into the swing of things, and looks back at the teacher.

“So, Marinette,” Lila begins, placing a hand on Marinette’s shoulder. She jerks away in surprise; hadn’t the girl ever heard of personal space? But her movement seemed to go unnoticed or at the very least unimportant to Lila, and Lila’s hand returns to her shoulder with ease. “I’ve heard that you’re an awesome designer! And you’ve even won competitions hosted by Gabriel Agreste! That’s  _ so  _ incredible!” Lila gushes, and Marinette can feel her fingers start drawing  _ circles  _ on her shoulder. This must be exactly what Adrien was going through back on Lila’s first day in class. It’s kind of uncomfortable. 

“Um, yea,” Marinette replies, trying not to pay attention. But it’s hard, what with Lila giving her practically all of her attention —and hand.

“You know, I  _ love  _ supporting artists like you! Wouldn’t it be so great if you could design something for me? I would love to model for you. Everyone would see your work!” Lila adds, and Marinette looks at her in disbelief. Could she not see Marinette’s complete and utter disinterest in whatever she has to say?

“Uh, maybe,” Marinette says, praying that maybe she could just yes her along until she gave up talking to her. As much as she wants to confront Lila, the teacher is already in the room and Lila is way too close for comfort. 

Marinette jumps again when Lila places a hand directly on top of hers, giving Marinette a smile that was too warm to be true.

“Oh, you’re so sweet, Marinette! Thanks so much for agreeing to help me! And I would love to come by sometime so you can get my measurements.” Lila nearly purrs, and Marinette freezes, her face flooding with red from being flustered and angry. She can practically feel her heart beating out of her chest. Who does this girl even think she is?

Mme. Bustier finally coughs and starts class, pointing out Lila’s return to any latecomers before addressing the lecture at hand. Marinette starts flipping through the pages on her tablet, but she’s distracted. Lila doesn’t appear to have any sense about personal space whatsoever, and there’s barely a few inches between them. She keeps leaning her head on her hand and casting big smiles to Marinette, snapping her concentration in half. What does she want?

“L-let’s focus on the lesson, Lila! I’m sure you want to catch up quickly!” Marinette says when Lila tries to touch her hand again. Lila smiles again, although it looks a bit like a smirk, and turns to her own tablet.

***

Marinette is prepared to leap out of her seat and rush directly to Alya for help, but she’s barely moved before Lila slides her arm around Marinette’s.

“Let’s eat lunch together!” Lila suggests, squeezing Marinette’s arm. Marinette sucks in a sharp breath, resisting the urge to keel over and die. She glances around; luckily most of the other students are already leaving or too far away to pay much attention. Alya and Nino are idling just outside the classroom door, probably waiting for her.

Marinette frowns and removes her arm from Lila’s. She takes a step back, and Lila gives her a confused look.

“What are you playing at?” Marinette asks, folding her arms and narrowing her eyes. 

“What are you talking about?” Lila asks, clearly feigning ignorance or something. “I just want to spend lunch with the prettiest and smartest girl in the class.”

Marinette blinks in surprise, suddenly blushing at the sudden praise despite knowing Lila was probably just using her snake skills. 

“C’mon,” she shakes her head, trying to clear up the flush on her face, “I’m sure we both know that whatever this is, isn’t anything good.” 

Lila leans a little forward inquisitively, and Marinette shuts up and steps back. The other girl’s gaze is dangerously focused, and Marinette’s never had it trained on her before. It kills all the words she has ready in her throat.

“Hey, Lila, coming to lunch?” Kim’s voice suddenly calls, and the moment is over. Lila looks away and waves.

“Of course, just having a quick chat with this sweet girl over here!” Lila says, and Marinette struggles to comprehend why this is happening. 

In her moment of vulnerability, Lila grabs her arm again and pulls her close, gives her a split-second dangerous smile that Marinette isn’t even sure she actually sees, and drags her down to the cafeteria.

_ Why why why why why why why why why why???? _

***

Lila practically shoves Marinette down into a chair before sitting next to her. To make matters worse, she lifts her own chair up a little bit and moves it closer, the legs scraping against the ground. 

Marinette is temporarily hurtled back to the first time Lila was at school, when she was studying with Adrien in the library and made the exact same move. Is Lila trying to flirt with her? Maybe to keep her quiet about what she knows? After all, Marinette’s the only one in the class who ever tried to expose Lila’s lies. 

She frowns. No matter how sweet and flirtatious Lila is acting, it’s all fake, Marinette is certain. Right? Lila is a liar. In fact, she’s such a big liar that she was even akumatized into illusion-based akuma. 

Marinette suddenly swallows in discomfort. What if Lila recognizes her? As Ladybug? Lila’s number one enemy?

Oh, shit.

Calm down. Marinette breathes slowly. It can’t be.

When she comes back to the present, practically the entire class is crowded around the table, and suddenly Lila is talking about her sprained wrist. 

There are a bunch of small plates on the table, and as Marinette glances down to the lunch line, she realizes that her classmates have been volunteering to bring Lila her food. 

Alya catches her eye; she and Nino are getting their own food. She gives Marinette a triumphant smile, probably meaning something like:  _ See? Lila is super nice!  _

Marinette scowls back at her, but Alya doesn’t seem to care.

“Wow, I’ve heard so much about how great you are as the class representative, Marinette,” Lila says, and Marinette realizes she hasn’t been paying attention to any of the conversation.

“Huh?” She says, and as she moves to stand up, she’s immediately anchored down by Lila’s arm wrapping firmly around her elbow.

The rest of the class echoes the sentiment, and Marinette, for a second, is touched by the praise of her peers, before remembering that at the moment they are all merely following along with what Lila says. But… it isn’t so bad that they’re talking positively about  _ her _ . Marinette bite her lip and feels a blush come to her face again; it’s always like that when she’s suddenly at the center of attention. 

“You know, I’ve also heard about how Marinette is like an everyday Ladybug! How sweet! You’re like a real superhero! I’m sure you’ve done all sorts of wonderful things,” Lila says, and then gestures to the rest of the class. “I know this sounds so crazy, but Marinette and I used to be childhood friends! I visited Paris once before for a vacation, and the two of us were best friends! Marinette helped save me when I got lost. How incredible that we got to meet up again like this!”

Marinette stares incredulously as the other students practically devour this false news right in front of her.

“I, uh... Um. I need to go to the bathroom!” Marinette jumps to her feet, wrests her arm out of Lila’s iron grip, and sprints away to safety.

When the door of the bathroom closes behind her, Marinette lets out a huge sigh and leans against a sink, staring at her reflection in the mirror. There’s still redness across her cheeks and she gently slaps at it, trying to will it away. Sure, Marinette obsesses over a boy and frequently imagines the two of them together, but she’s never had a person come so close and treat her like that before. Something is fishy, but that doesn’t do much to dampen her natural reaction to someone holding her arm close and calling her all sorts of wonderful things. The words are double-edged. They’re sweet to hear but she knows they’re all fake. Everything Lila says is a lie, anyway.

The door to the bathroom opens, and Marinette grimaces as she turns around.

“Marinette!” Lila says, standing with her hands clasped. The door swings shut again, and the temporary ambience of the cafeteria fades away. “Oh, are you crying?” She asks, with concern in her voice that Marinette is sure is fake.

“No!” Marinette says sharply, glaring at Lila.

“I’m sorry, maybe I’ve been putting too much attention on you. I can tell that you don’t like me, but I don’t understand why… we barely know each other,” Lila sighs sadly. 

Marinette keeps her eye on Lila quietly, trying to judge her actions. She knows Lila is a good actor and a liar, and there’s no way that whatever Lila is saying is true.

“Don’t tell me it’s because of this new seating arrangement in class…” Lila suddenly says, “I’m so sorry, you probably used to be sitting with your friends. I didn’t mean to separate you from them, Marinette!” She adds, and Marinette wonders how Lila can make her voice drip with so much nonexistent guilt. 

“No. Why are you making up all these things about me?” Marinette finally asks, cutting right to the chase.

“Oh, you mean the childhood friendship story? Don’t worry about it, they’re just harmless little stories. People are always interested in what I have to say, so of course I want to include you! Besides, I  _ wish  _ we used to know each other already.” Lila answers, with a big smile on the whole time. She gestures with her hands in an engaging manner, then reaches out and gently takes one of Marinette’s. She puts on an impeccable face of sincerity. “Come on, let’s be friends!”

Once Marinette gets over the fact that someone is clasping her hand in both of theirs, she frowns. She really, really wants to cut right to the subject at hand, but Lila is acting so nice she almost feels guilty about it.

_ Stop, she’s just acting. It’s fine _ .

Marinette exerts an incredible amount of control, and pulls her hand away. To her surprise, Lila doesn’t let go. 

_ We’ll only be friends the day you stop lying,  _ is what Marinette wants to say, but for some reason she feels the need to soften her words. What are you supposed to do when a girl is clinging to your hand with big wide eyes? Technically, Lila has barely done anything hurtful at all, and has even improved Marinette’s social popularity in the brief time she’s been here. 

“Lila, please. I really,  _ really  _ don’t like lies. About anything, even it’s harmless,” Marinette finally says. “I don’t want to be friends if you’re going to be making up all these fake stories.”

At first, Lila’s face falls and Marinette, for a split-second, feels soul-crushing guilt at her sad eyes. Thankfully, Lila’s frown transforms into a smirk, and she looks smugly at Marinette. Oh, thank gosh, now she doesn’t have to feel any guilt. 

“I only tell people what they want to hear,” Lila says, and surprises Marinette by giving her hand a quick squeeze. Marinette jerks her hand back, but it’s still not enough and Marinette isn’t sure she wants to get violent in the bathroom.

“It’s called lying!” Marinette exclaims, taking a step forward, “Besides, you  _ know  _ I don’t trust you! Remember the video call you had with our class? Why are you trying to be my friend?”  _ Also why did you call me pretty and smart? _

“There’s nothing you can do about it anyway, Marinette,” Lila immediately replies, her sugary sweet voice dropping instead to something  a little dangerous. “People can’t resist when they hear what they like to hear,” She continues, taking confident steps forward. Marinette backs up, glaring at Lila.

“You don’t want me to lie about you, then fine. I don’t care. But soon you’ll be my best friend whether you like it or not, and I’ll make sure the class knows it. I’m sure you wouldn’t like me to tell the whole class how you cruelly hurt me in the bathroom when I came to help you.” Lila’s suddenly extremely close, and Marinette can’t back up anymore; she’s pressed up against the tiled wall, and she tries to lean away. When Lila says best friend, Marinette freezes. She’s hurtling back to the day when Lila told everyone how she was best friends with Ladybug.

Does Lila know? Is she trying to forcefully make Ladybug her best friend to make her lie true? Marinette glares.

Lila lifts the hand she’s holding and puts it against the wall beside Marinette head. 

Oh wow, this is like, this is like a kabedon, Marinette thinks somewhere in the back of her brain. So much for a sprained wrist. 

Lila’s free hand slams into the wall on the other side of her head, and she leans in closer. Marinette feels her heart thumping even harder from the proximity. Somewhere in her head she notes that Lila is actually so close that she only would have to barely lean in to kiss her.

Brain, stop, please, jesus, shit. Lila’s hand was hot on her own palm and it wasn’t helping.

Marinette squeezes her eyes shut and turns her head, trying to avert whatever terrible thing was going to befall her.

“As long as you don’t do anything stupid, I won’t say anything bad about you,” Lila finally says softly, and Marinette opens one eye. 

To her own surprise, Lila is also looking away, and Marinette isn’t sure if it’s the terrible bathroom lighting, but she thinks she sees a bit of red on her face. No, that would be dumb. 

“You do seem a little smarter than everyone else, so I’m sure you know how easily I could sway the rest of them. All you have to do is stay quiet and be my friend, and you’ll be just fine,” Lila adds, before looking back at Marinette. “Maybe you don’t like lies, but I’m not hurting anyone. So it doesn’t matter.” 

Lila’s voice actually sounds a little pleading, but that was also probably fake. Who knows, at this point?

Marinette takes a second to mull over her words. Her own hand relaxes in Lila’s grasp as she considers it. It’s true, although everyone is practically brainwashed, Lila’s lies (so far) haven’t been malicious. She hasn’t hurt anyone except for Marinette, but Lila theoretically doesn’t know that she’s Ladybug or whatever. 

Maybe. Unless this whole thing is a ploy to get close to Ladybug. 

But anyway, maybe it is fine to just let Lila keep lying. Maybe she’d go on another big trip again and be gone for a good chunk of time. 

“So you just want to be my friend to make sure I keep quiet,” Marinette summarizes, more resigned. “Was it really necessary to pin me against a wall? Have you been reading too much manga?”

Just then, the bathroom door swings open.

“Marinette? Lila? Are you alr- oh!” From behind Lila, Marinette sees Alya in the doorframe, her mouth open in surprise. Alya looks at Lila, then at Marinette, then at Lila’s hand on Marinette’s against the wall.

Lila’s free hand moves quickly and Marinette is too shocked to react. Lila grabs her waist and pulls her off the wall into a hug and turns both of them a bit more to Alya. The loud sound of the door closing echoes as they look at each other for a second.

“Uh, Alya, thi-” Marinette begins, trying to find the words to save herself, but too many things are happening. 

“Oh, hey Alya!” Lila cuts in, “we’re just fine! Marinette and I just wanted a few moments alone! She was feeling a little down but it’s all okay now.”

Marinette watches in horror as Alya’s surprised face gives way to the smuggest grin she’s ever seen the girl ever wear in her entire life, ever.

Aw, crap.


End file.
